Saturday, April 21, 2012

Music Discovery: SoulEye's "Positive Force"

Retro video game fans will love this one. "Positive Force" is by Magnus Pålsson, better known as SoulEye. The song comes from PPPPPP, which is the soundtrack for the indie game VVVVVV. Like the enitre album, "Positive Force" is chiptune style, giving it an 8-bit retro sound. The syncopation in the drum rhythm along with the sine (I think) lead makes it feel right from a video game (and it is, so no surprise there). Of the songs from PPPPPP, "Positive Force" is one of the best. It's very upbeat and has a great chorus with a well placed key change in the chorus. If you're into retro games, have played VVVVVV, or in general like 8-bit music, I would recommend checking out this song as well as the album PPPPPP. Also, you can find "Positive Force" on the Rock Band Network, in addition to "Potential for Anything" and "Pressure Cooker" from the album.

EDIT: Howzabout I give you a link to the song? Here you go (after the break):

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Ramblings About Choral Arrangements

At last year's LCWM choir concert, I arranged Uncle Kraker's "Follow Me" for my guys group, Legàcy (yes, the accent is necessary). This year, I've been a lot busier with arrangement for the pop concert, which is Disney themed. For Legàcy, I arranged a 4-song medley/mashup/whatever of "chill" music, including Travie McCoy's "Billionaire", Bruno Mars's "Count on Me", Jason Mraz's "I'm Yours", and Bill Withers's "Lean on Me". The song is written in TBB, which for those of you who aren't music-savvy, stands for Tenor-Baritone-Bass, meaning there are three harmony parts; I am the tenor, Isaac Schultz and Justin Hruby are the baritones, and Sam Vetch is the bass. Nearly everyone who I've shown the arrangement to is excited to see it performed. I also arranged "I Just Can't Wait to Be King" from The Lion King, also in TBB. That will be sung by all the guys in the choir. Also, for our Chamber Choir, I arranged "Circle of Life" a capella (without piano). It's technically SATB (Soprano-Alto-Tenor-Bass), but three of the parts split to really make it SSAATTB. I intended to get that done in one weekend, but it turns out writing seven parts is harder than three. Who knew?
So yeah, if you're planning on going to the concert in May, keep an ear out for those three songs. If this article seems random, it's because it is. I just felt like writing something, and this was the first thing that came to mind.